A Poem for Warrior III

Learn to fall in love with the risk of taking flight, even if it means falling, just a little bit every day.

Artwork by Miranda Fuller

After giving birth, I became self-conscious about my core. It was… different.. stretched out… deflated. And I hid it as much as I could in the same familiar way I used to hide my body behind large, baggy shirts, and my feelings behind the facade of being “tough.”

But since starting my self-healing journey, which includes a daily meditation and yoga practice, I have been slowly relearning how to engage my core and reacquaint myself with long lost parts of my body and the feelings that are held there. Like power. Like pain. Like fear. Love self-love.

Can any of you relate to this?

Warrior III by Rebecca Nebert

Warrior III is a yoga pose that I used to think was mostly about balance, but only now as I strive to embody my life in a more complete way, do I feel that it is also about taking risks, engaging my core, and being ok with falling.

When I wrote (and rewrote and rewrote) the poem for Warrior III, I focused on the vulnerable feeling I get when I take this shape and was called to use the metaphor of the heron… a bird who frequents the waters near my Delaware Valley home.

Artwork by Paul Grecian

I hope this poem helps you embody the Warrior III pose in a new way and whether you practice yoga or not, may you give yourself permission to take a risk today and… and perhaps work a little bit towards what seems impossible until it is no longer impossible, but in reach.

Warrior III

By Corie Feiner



I press my left foot 
to the watery floor, 

gently bend my wobbling
knee, lift my right leg 

behind me and become 
a blue heron extending 

my beak towards 
the quiet stream to search 

for perch fish and sacred stones. 
I waver, hold myself 

from my center as best I can 
and teach myself, again, 

to fall in love with the risk 
of taking flight— even 

if it means falling, 
just a little bit
every day. 

But who ever said 
I was not allowed to fall 
except for myself?  

How else will I learn what 
I am made of? 

How else will I become 
my own hero? To connect 

to the earth and stand my ground 
before I am able 
to finally take flight.



Sanskrit Name: Virabhadrasana III

All paid subscribers can listen to an audio version of Warrior III here.

If you are able to upgrade to paid, it would really support my work, support my acts of dana/giving to Yoga4Philly, and you would gain access to the archives and all the audio recordings of my poems. But if not, I hear you. Wherever you are at, it is an honor to have you here.

More About Warrior III

Here are some Substack publications that explore the warrior poses:

Urban Yoga Mama - ”Virabhadrasana: The Warrior Poses: finding stability in motherhood

Yoga with Michelle - “Utkatasana and Virabhadrasana – Yoga Warrior Sequence: Grounding and Lightness: Flowing Out of the Standing Sequence with Utkatasana and Virabhadrasana”

Aham’s Substack - “History of Virabhadrasana, or Warrior Pose”